The Worst Colorway of Every Air Jordan

Our picks from Air Jordans 1 through 31.

The Air Jordan line is over 30 models deep, with countless colorways releasing (and re-releasing) since its debut in 1985. But let’s be honest, notevery single one of them has been a hit. While the originals tend to be safe looks for the brand, as it's branched out to lifestyle flavors and reached further into storytelling around Michael Jordan, there has been a fair share of misses.

We've gone through the history of Air Jordans to pick the worst version of each of model in the line. It's important to note that some of these shoes aren’t necessarily bad, but were chosen simply because certain models have remained relatively untarnished. You can think of those as "least good." But in other instances, they are truly worth their "worst" status. See our picks below.

1. Air Jordan 1 'Leroy Smith'

Although the concept was interesting, the ​execution—most notably the mid-cut and color scheme that doesn’t even match itself—didn’t live up to its potential.

2. Air Jordan 2 'Iron Purple'

After leaving the Air Jordan 2 relatively unmolested for most of its retro run, Jordan Brand struck with a vengeance in 2014, covering non-traditional colorways with prints like the splatter, elephant, cement, and safari. The worst of the bunch, seen here, doubled down on the prints and combined them with a colorway that would have been best as a gradeschool exclusive.

3. Air Jordan 3 'DTRT'

It’s hard to say which aspect of this sneaker is worse—the fact that the DTRT 3s look like an early 2000s bootleg, or the fact that it was the Air Jordan 4s (not 3s) that were actually featured in the film Do The Right Thing.

4. Air Jordan 4 'Laser'

What’s a quick and easy way to ruin an all-time classic colorway of an all-time classic model? Cover it with lasering. And if you want to make things even worse, package it with a hat and shirt no one wants.

5. Air Jordan 5 'Laser'

This laser thing is becoming a trend on this list. This time around, it was accompanied by a colorway that could have been included even without the lasering.

6. Air Jordan 6 'Olympic'

The more recent Olympic 6 Retro may have left something to be desired as far as quality and accuracy to the original, but at least it resembled something legitimate. In contrast, the "other" Olympic 6 featured flimsy patent leather, a rainbow color scheme, and a hood-of-a-Camaro style toe graphic.

7. Air Jordan 7 'Filbert'

For a model that hasn't released in all that many colorways, the 7's good version to bootleg-looking version ratio is surprisingly high. After much debate, we decided that the color and pattern combination found on the Filberts was the most offensive to our eyes.

8. Air Jordan 8 'White/Anthracite'

The Peapod 8s are an easy choice (and completely justified), but the contrasting colorblocking found here is much harder to ignore.

9. Air Jordan 9 'Quai 54'

A mostly-white Air Jordan 9 (like the Silver Anniversary edition) should be decent at the very worst. Not everyone likes white sneakers, but they don’t usually offend anyone. But the contrasting stitching and graphic laces put this one behind even the worst of the “Alter Egos” pack.

10. Air Jordan 10 'Paris'

The City Series Air Jordan 10s are among the most coveted OGs never to return, so it was that much more disappointing in 2016 when Jordan Brand released a city-themed series of Jordan 10s that seemingly no one wanted (as evidenced by their heavy outlet presence). Almost any shoe from the pack could have made this list, but the "Paris" edition, a European exclusive, is especially notable for its overuse of texture and iridescence.

11. Air Jordan 11 'Gamma'

It's not that the "Gamma" 11s are bad as much as every other colorway of the 11 being at least a little bit better. And with no real relevance to the history of the line, it's a colorway that falls below the rest, despite not being as awful as many of the shoes on this list.

12. Air Jordan 12 'Suede Flu Game'

There’s nothing wrong with the colors on this Air Jordan 12, but the materials and unnecessary graphics made this classic look like a cheap knock-off of the original "Flu Games."

13. Air Jordan 13 'Squadron Blue'

Thinking outside the box is fine, but this is where it goes wrong. The Squadron Blue 13’s colorway may be one of the least Air Jordan-looking Air Jordans ever, and it suffers because of that.

14. Air Jordan 14 'Cinder'

It’s hard to imagine exactly why this white and dark brown edition of the Air Jordan 14 even exists. At least the similar "Deep Forest" pair could function as a team-based colorway.

15. Air Jordan 15 'Laser'

How do you make an unpopular model like the Air Jordan 15 even worse? Just add lasering. And not just any lasering—lasering featuring outsole graphics of equally unpopular models like the Air Jordan 19.

16. Air Jordan 16 'Cherrywood'

You could easily make a case for the Ginger 16s to be here instead, but the Gingers were actually worn by Michael Jordan as a member of the Wizards, which is one more positive than we could find for the Cherrywoods.

17. Air Jordan 17 'CDP'

The Countdown Pack 17 isn’t necessarily bad, but we felt that the original leather upper was a better look than the nubuck found on the remake.

18. Air Jordan 18 'CDP'

Similar to the 17, it’s not that the Countdown Pack edition is that bad. Despite this being a classic Bulls colorway, we preferred the black and blue original—thanks in part to its higher quality suede.

19. Air Jordan 19 'Midwest'

This red and white colorway of the Air Jordan 19 is so basic that it’s hard to say what possibly made this the “Midwest” edition of a regional release. But regardless of geography, the colorblocking brought out the worst of the 19’s design.

20. Air Jordan 20 'East'

The stories told by the print found on the strap of the 20 actually helped make up for some of the tackiness of its aesthetic. But when used in an all-over fashion like on the regional 20 releases, it has an especially bootleg quality to it—particularly in the Chutney colorway.

21. Air Jordan 21 'Black'

It’s not that the color is all that bad on this Air Jordan 21, but the plastic-like sheen doesn’t exactly imply quality of materials.

22. Air Jordan 22 'Omega'

Adding graphics to a shoe is almost as sure-fire of a way of ruining it as lasering is.

23. Air Jordan 23 'All Star'

By the time the Air Jordan 23 hit in 2008 the all-over print craze was all but over. This white-based upper helped call attention to that fact with its high-contrast embroidered pattern of Michael Jordan's initials.

24. Air Jordan 2009 'White'

You can't exactly say there’s such thing as a good colorway of the Air Jordan 2009, but this launch colorway was the first many of us saw, serving as the introduction to a model we’d rather forget.

25. Air Jordan 2010 'White/Red'

The Air Jordan 2010 is another model where there weren’t exactly any bad colorways, but this one most reminds us of Dwyane Wade's short-lived and unremarkable time with the brand.

26. Air Jordan 2011 'Orion Blue'

The Air Jordan 2011, with its clean design and high-quality leather, should have been a hard one to mess up. But this colorway doesn’t work casually, doesn’t work on-court, and doesn’t have any other application where we can imagine it being a good look.

27. Air Jordan 2012 'Tinker'

It’s hard to get a simple black and white colorway wrong, but the blocking used here implied "saddle shoes" rather than "inspired by the greatest basketball player of all time."

28. Air Jordan 28 'Why Not?'

It turns out that giant text on the side of an Air Jordan is just as bad of a move as graphics or lasering. Who could have guessed?

29. Air Jordan 29 'Elephant'

Similar to the "Banned" story, elephant print will seemingly never go away. That's great on a retro like the Air Jordan 3, which introduced the print to the line, but doesn't have the same impact over 25 years later when introducing new performance models.

30. Air Jordan 30 'UNC'

Most of the criticism around the Air Jordan 30 revolves around its delay, the re-use of the AJ29 tooling, and general underwhelming nature of a model that was supposed to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the line. It's another model with no colorways that were bad, but the "UNC" edition was the least notable.

31. Air Jordan 31 'Battle Grey'

The heel "fin" of the Air Jordan 23 didn't exactly look cool, but it helped tell the story of the Considered Design ethos of the model. But its inclusion on the "Battle Grey" 31 is as unnecessary as the cracked silver upper.

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